Von Delany Mizell

Von Delany Mizell (1910–1973) was a medical doctor and Civil Rights activist in South Florida. He was the first child of Isidore and Minnie Mizell, early Black residents of Broward County, Florida. He earned his Bachelor's degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1932 and completed his medical training at Meharry Medical College in 1936. In 1937 he returned to his hometown of Fort Lauderdale to establish a private practice and became one of only two Black physicians in the city, alongside James F. Sistrunk. Since at that time Fort Lauderdale's hospitals would not accept "colored" patients, in 1938 he helped establish Provident Hospital for Black residents. During World War II, Mizell served as a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve and Medical Corps, where he protested the segregated conditions of Black servicemembers. In 1963 President Kennedy appointed Mizell to the White House Committee on Hospitals. On July 1, 2016, John U. Lloyd Beach State Park was renamed the Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park in honor of civil rights efforts undertaken by Mizell and Eula Johnson during segregation.

Ethel Mizell Pappy Collection Von D. Mizell's sister, Ethel Mizell Pappy, donated her family papers to the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The papers contain materials documenting Von D. Mizell's life and career as well as Provident Hospital. Ethel Mizell Pappy family papers, African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, Broward County Library.

Continued Tradition of Education Ethel's daughter and Von Delaney's niece, Rosamond, was the first African American student to integrate a "White's only" school within the Broward County Public Schools system.